Arnaud Sarfati to exit SG CIB in reshuffle

Arnaud Sarfati, co-global head of cross-asset solutions at Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking (SG CIB) in Paris, is expected to part company with the bank, leaving Richard Quesette as sole head of cross-asset solutions, according to sources. Prior to becoming co-heads, Quesette had been head of trading and Sarfati head of sales.

Marc El Asmar is understood to be taking on the role of head of sales, while Hubert Le Liepvre, managing director, will remain the bank's global head of engineering. El Asmar is currently a managing director and head of sales for western Europe, cross-asset solutions.

The European structuring team will be tweaked, with Pierre Lescourret to become sole head of Europe structuring, and Ambroise Marquis to be named as his deputy: the two were formerly co-heads.

Elsewhere, Société Générale has announced executive committee changes that see Christophe Mianné appointed deputy chief executive and Dan Fields named as the new head of global markets at SG CIB. Fields will continue as global head of trading, based in Paris. Fields was named co-head of the global markets division in March 2011, sharing the position with Sofiene Haj Taieb. Taieb, also based in Paris and formerly global head of cross-asset solutions, is leaving the bank. Fields became global head of trading at SG CIB in 2008, and has been at the bank since 1994.

Pierre Palmieri is promoted to head of global finance, while a release from the bank names Jean-Luc Parer as adviser to SG CIB's management. Parer, who was formerly head of global finance and Palmieri's boss, is expected to move to the international retail banking division of Société Générale.

David Coxon has been named deputy head of global finance at SG CIB, along with Slawomir Krupa, who keeps his role as the bank's chief executive of central and eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, while also being appointed to the group management committee. The executive committee also includes SG CIB chief executive Didier Valet, Thierry Aulagnon, head of coverage and investment banking, and Christophe Leblanc, chief operating officer, who has also been appointed to the group management committee.

SG CIB declined to comment.

John Tessar has joined JVB Financial as senior vice-president and head of structured products. Based in JVB's headquarters in Boca Raton, Tessar has been hired to expand the firm's product development and management for its network of dealers, advisers and institutional clients.

Tessar reports to Stephan Burklin, managing director of the firm. "He has been brought on to spearhead an expansion of our structured products desk, freeing up other existing members of the team to focus on their own strengths of distribution to the broker-dealer community, as well as the registered investment adviser space," says a spokesman.

Tessar was most recently a regional wealth advisory consultant for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney. Previously, he held positions as managing director and head of the hybrid investment products division at Icap Corporates, and product manager of structured products in the broker-dealer services division of LaSalle Bank.

Paul Levy, managing director and European head of institutional structuring at UBS, and Ben Mutin, an executive director in the structuring team, have left the Swiss bank. Both were London-based and worked in the fixed income, currency and commodities group. There is no plan to replace them, according to a spokesperson.

CIBC World Markets has appointed Nadim Siddique as managing director and head of equity derivatives trading. Siddique, formerly managing director for equities at Citadel Investment Group, is based in CIBC's New York office. He reports locally to Eric Price, managing director and head of capital markets, and globally to Paul Beck, managing director and head of equity derivatives. Siddique has worked in equity derivatives sales and trading for 15 years, based in New York and Japan. Prior to his role at Citadel, Siddique was head of Japanese equity derivatives at Morgan Stanley.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) has abolished the role of head of global delta one strategy, a post that was originally due to be filled in October 2011 by Deborah Fuhr in London. BAML attributes the change in strategy to "organisational changes", with regional delta one strategists reporting into their respective trading group heads. The bank remains committed to delta one, says a spokesperson. Fuhr, who was previously employed at US asset manager Blackrock as head of exchange-traded funds (ETF) research and implementation strategy, as well as producer of the company's ETF landscape reports, had not formally joined BAML.

Her role at the bank was due to include a focus on ETFs and other exchange-traded products, with a reporting line to Piers Butler, head of the Europe, Middle East and Africa global equity, macro and events group at BAML. The job would have seen Fuhr forsake ETF research for a move onto the trading floor.

Prior to Blackrock, Fuhr held roles at Barclays Global Investors (which was bought by Blackrock) and Morgan Stanley.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch has hired Masahiro Oshige as managing director in equity products sales, except for research sales activities in Tokyo. Oshige joined from Credit Suisse on January 4, the same day as Yuichiro Shinozaki, who has moved to BAML as a director in product development and structuring for alternative as well as equity investments, also in Tokyo. Shinozaki was formerly employed at Goldman Sachs. "We want to strengthen our structure and solution capability for clients (corporate and financial institutions and third-party distributors) in Japan by these hires," says a Tokyo-based spokesman.

Aaron Comerford has joined Clifford Chance's Tokyo office as counsel for derivatives and structured products. Comerford joins from Allen & Overy in Tokyo, where he has been counsel since 2008. The new appointment marks a further strengthening of the law firm's Asia-Pacific derivatives and structured products team.

Brown Shipley promoted Julian Hardiman to head of private banking - North-West on January 9. Hardiman will be based in the London-based private bank's Manchester office and will report to Ian Sackfield, managing director.

Jonathan Whitehead has been appointed as the new global head of commodities at Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking (SG CIB). Whitehead joined the bank in March 2011 as deputy global head of commodities at the London office. His promotion comes on the back of the departure of former global head of commodities Edouard Neviaski, who has left to join GDF Suez Trading, according to a market source. Prior to SG CIB, Whitehead was head of commodity sales and structuring for Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Barclays Capital.

Nomura has announced two senior appointments within its Asia-Pacific equities business. Christopher Carter joins as head of equity derivatives, Japan, from Renaissance Capital, where he was global head of equity derivatives. He will continue to be based in Tokyo. Carter was previously at Credit Suisse for nine years in Tokyo, Hong Kong and London, most recently as global head of equity derivatives. He will oversee sales, trading and structuring for equity derivatives products in Japan, reporting to Norikazu Akedo, head of equities for Japan.

Meanwhile, Jean El Khoury has been promoted to head of equity trading, Asia ex-Japan, responsible for the management of trading and risk across all equity products in the region. He reports to Paul Dolan and John Adair, joint heads of equities, Asia-Pacific, and Christian Dalban, global head of equity trading. In addition, he will have pan-regional responsibilities as head of trading for equity derivatives and convertibles, Asia-Pacific. El Khoury joined Nomura in January 2011 as head of equity derivatives trading, Asia-Pacific, in Hong Kong.

The bank has also expanded its global macro strategy team with the appointment of Andy Chaytor as senior macro strategist. Chaytor joins from Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was a senior strategist. He will report to Kevin Gaynor, head of global fixed-income macro strategy, and Bob Janjuah, head of global fixed-income tactical asset allocation.

Barclays Capital has hired Mohamed Ali Bacha as head of equity derivatives trading for Europe in London. Bacha left a similar role at Nomura in October 2011, just a few weeks after the departure of Abdelkerim Karim, Nomura's global head of equity derivatives, and Emad Morrar, its global head of product strategy. Bacha joined Nomura from Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Investec Capital Markets has added Callum Macpherson to its commodity hedging and investor product offering in its capital markets division. Based in London, Macpherson will work in the new role within the treasury products and distribution team headed by Christopher Meyer.

Macpherson joins from Nomura, where he was responsible for establishing a commodity structuring function, a role he previously performed at Lehman Brothers, where he worked from 1999 to 2008.

MSCI has hired Kazunya Nagasawa as head of Japan. Nagaswa joins from Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) where he was part of the quantitative investment strategies team. At MSCI, Nagasawa will report Baer Pettit, managing director and global head of client coverage and marketing. Prior to joining GSAM in 1998, Nagasawa worked at Meiji Life Insurance for four years. Nagasawa replaces Philippe Ballet, who has retired.